By Vasilis Kaltsas

The gap between the Greek 10 -year bond and the corresponding German closes, which is the European reference index.

The spread is now down to 73 basis points, and have also seen a decrease in Southeast Europe’s economies and in particular the so -called pigs.

Pigs or Piigs

The derogatory acronym Pigs was originally used in the 90’s to characterize the economies of southern Europe and in particular Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain during the European debt crisis of 2009-14, the Piigs variant was invented to include Ireland.

At that time, the five EU Member States were struggling to refinance their public debt and rescued indebted banks.

Bonds

The gap between Greek bond yields and the German reference index has been closed.

The spread with the 10 -year German bond has been reduced to levels close to historically low, below 80 basis points or 0.80%, specifically to 73 basis points.

Specifically today, Tuesday, June 24, the yield on the 10 -year Greek bond is 3.26%, having dropped 35 base points in the last year.

The corresponding German has a yield of 2.53%, increased by 11 basis points in the last 12 months.

The largest yield decrease in the last year has seen the Italian 10 -year, with a 3.46% yield and a decrease of 47 base points in one year.

The yields of the Spanish and the Portuguese of 10 years amount to 3.20 and 3.00 respectively, with the past 12 months reaching 8 and 13 basis points.

Growth above average

The European Commission expects Spain’s GDP rise by 2.6% in 2025, while the OECD expects Spain to have its third stronger growth than all its Member States (OECD) this year.

Greek GDP, meanwhile, is expected to be 2.3% in 2025, according to the Commission.

The forecasts for Portugal’s GDP An? Erxontai at 1.8%.

On the contrary, forecasts for the development of Italy amount to 0.7%, lower than 1.1% for the eurozone average.